Artist's Book: Menthol Daze

The booklet is 107mm X 150mm. The inside page once opened is 297mm x 420mm (A3)
The cover is printed on white card, the inside page is black and white on 130g cartridge paper.
There is space for 14 collectors' cards. Each edition has 9 cards pasted in. The collectors' cards are printed in colour on archival glossy card.
Menthol Daze is produced in editions of 7.

Menthol Daze is a single fold-out page containing spaces for collected cigarette cards. The booklet is produced under my own invented brand Elysian's Cigarettes.
The images are manipulated collages from Salem cigarette advertisements and images from the Sierra Club publications from the 'fifties. The cards are numbered and when pasted into the booklet, text accompanies each picture. The images are intended to represent the clichéd images of delightful countryside, so often used in selling products - by attempting to make them appear healthy and natural.
The text that accompanies each image however details reasons to be uncertain of the countryside. Threats in the natural environment range from nuclear testing contamination, dangerous infections carried in rivers and annual lawn mower injuries, to the link between temperature change and heart attacks. The intention of Menthol Daze was to juxtapose threat and relaxation found in the Great Outdoors in order to satirize the inflated claims made for nature in advertisements - cereals, shampoo, cars, sweets and snacks, insurance and mobile phones.

  

 

This book was created as part of my practice-based PhD researching at anxiety in advertisements.

Artist's Book: Reboot

Reboot - Limited Edition of 10, Brighton 2008
400mm x 170mm, a double-spiral bound pair of books each of 20 pages.
The cover is clear acrylic closed with magnetic catches.
Hand-cut rubber stamp icons are added to final printed pages.
Several real capacitors and fuses are threaded into two of the pages.

This is a book about computers. Do they really hate us? Why are computers so indignant when you want to open files, rewarding your impetuousness with spinning balls and hourglass icons. This is a book about technological brokenness. We rely more and more on technology and computers, ignoring the fact that there seems to be a mechanical revolt gradually gathering pace all around us - soon the only tasks left for us will be hand-drawing the 'Out of Order' signs to hang on the machines.
Over a period of time, I’ve been recording technology failures photographically as well as drawing the language of brokenness, cryptic messages such as, disc error and are you sure you want to shut-down?
I've combined my photographs and drawings into this pair of books, added to this hand-cut rubber stamps of familiar computer icons - hourglass, watch, cursor arrow and older legacy icons such as the floppy disk. Scanned legacy peripherals such as scssi leads and old network cables tangle across the pages, to remind us just how fast technology is moving.

The books work as a pair and should be opened and read simultaneously.

Artist's Book: My Favourite Souvenir

This book is dual language and is available in two colours within the edition:
Red cover (English/Malay) or Blue cover (Malay/English). The book is hardcover bound in bookcloth.
The book measures 200mm x 200mm when closed and 200mm x 600mm when fully opened.
The book unfolds once to reveal the first sewn-in 14 page section, it then unfolds again to the left to reveal the second sewn-in 14 page section.
The main body of the book is printed on 130gsm cartridge paper with colour images printed on 260gsm photographic paper tipped-in. Both sections have patterned endpapers.
A white card band holds the book closed, it has the title printed on it, which is either:
Red: MY Favourite SOUVENIR ....... Blue: CENDERAHATI kegemaran KU
Handmade by Artist, made to order in either red or blue, total edition limited to 20, Brighton 2005

This book was created as a response to the many souvenirs that are available at popular tourist destinations. In this case a journey of six and a half thousand miles (about 10473km) over 12 hours bought me face to face with the same snow storms I had left behind in my home town - even though snow is not a familiar sight in tropical Kuala Lumpur. Popular attractions were visited and many plastic souvenirs were collected such as, key rings, fridge magnets, spoons, shot glasses, pens, plates and of course snowstorms. The souvenirs were all branded with the image of Kuala Lumpur's ultra-modern Petronus towers. I had noticed that my home town of Brighton seemed to sell itself by pasting images of the Royal Pavilion on snowstorms, ironically the Pavilion's indian architectural style is also prevalent in older areas of Kuala Lumpur. I photographed a set of souvenirs concentrating on close-ups to capture the garishness and build quality. I then collected and contrasted these with photographs of the same souvenir objects bought in Brighton, my home town. I shopped for souvenirs and soon had like for like, but with a different building stuck on the magnet, so to speak.



The book is made in two sections: The red section is from the perspective of a traveler from England to Malaysia and the blue section is from the perspective of a traveler from Malaysia to England. Both travelers have bought the same souvenirs and the book can be opened to contrast similar items. Melancholy travel and memory quotes accompany the images along with drawings that were created during my journey. In the red section the quotes are in English, in the blue section the same quotes appear in Malay. The red covered book has the English section first, the blue covered book has the Malay section first otherwise the insides are the same. Malay turned out to be much longer than English so the typography and design were designed to be flexible enough to hold either language in the same format. Translations from English into Malay were kindly supplied by Shep Sharer who has my thanks.

Research Funding
This book was supported through Images in Practice a research center at the University of Portsmouth.
As part of a student 'project exchange' staff research was also supported, in this case, research and reference gathering for a limited edition artist's book called My Favourite Souvenir. As part of the visit to Malaysia myself and colleague Dr. Maureen O'Neill, also from the University of Portsmouth, visited as external examiners ALIF Creative Academy in Kuala Lumpur, assessing final year multimedia design and graphic design student presentations.
The main focus of this funded research exercise was to provide a project exchange for final year students studying illustration at the University of Portsmouth with graphics students at the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The project is called 'Daily Routine' and visually explored the daily tasks that are often taken for granted, it also sought to celebrate cultural similarities and differences. Myself and Dr. Maureen O'Neil worked in collaboration with Dr. Ruslan Rahim and Mr. Wan Zamani from the Universiti Teknologi MARA. To see the Daily Routine Project click here...

Artist's Book: We're Sorry_

110mm x 135mm with 30 pages.

The cover is printed on heavy card and is held shut by a slide-off hazard-tape belly band. 

The inside cover is printed with a pattern of apologies. The 30 inside pages are printed in black on blue paper, they are bound into the book in two sections in an unusual 'W' sewn binding. Click on the image for a detail. The photographic images are printed on sticker paper then cut out using a perforation cutter and stuck into the book. Produced in an edition of 10 each book is numbered and signed.




Have you noticed that the more life apparently gets better, the more things seem to break down? Vending machines, ticket machines, cash machines and computers all conspire to refuse us their automated service - spitting-out notes and stealing change. It doesn't end there, public toilets are locked or broken and automated turnstiles simply refuse to let us pass.
Surprisingly this mechanical entropy seems to have gone unnoticed. However, through the course of
a few months armed with a camera phone I recorded the mechanical revolt that is gradually gathering pace all around us. We're Sorry_ is a salute to brokenness and the signs that announce it.

To see all the spreads from this book click here...

Current edition has a white cover and alternative images within

Selected Exhibitions:

Closure 2009, The Gallery, The University of Northampton, 15th August–19th September 2009 at artworks-MK, Milton Keynes, UK.We're Sorry_ has been accepted for this travelling artists' book exhibition from the We Love Your Books Collective.
After the exhibiton, We're Sorry_ will join the WLYB permanent archive

Montage Over Britain: David Ferry plus Artists’ Books from the CFPR Collection
Saturday 9 December 2006 - Sunday 14 January 2007
Permanent Gallery and Bookshop, Brighton
We're Sorry_ from Damp Flat Books will be in the exhibition.
Accompanying the show will be a unique collection of 45 contemporary books by artists, available for visitors to view. This collection has been especially selected for The Permanent Bookshop by Sarah Bodman, and includes the work of Jake Tilson, Yoko Ono, Sophie Calle and David Shrigley.

Artist's Book: Headroom

290mm x 110mm folded dark pink stationery card cover with cut-out title revealing metallic barley pattern. Leather tie, metal spiral binding. Graph paper trace fly-leaf. Main body of book printed on to accounting paper french-folded.  14 pages with ending with edition number, signature and maker's emboss.

The book is a visual response to the drive to fit more and more people into an ever diminishing space. The UK is under pressure to find more housing and every patch of land, including gardens, are being built upon. New housing is tightly packed with little concern for the environment or the needs of the new residents, leading to a breaking down of community spirit. New housing does not seem to be designed with people in mind and ironically this can isolate individuals - even when they are so close
to everyone else.

Do you know your neighbours?
Increasingly in cities we do not, choosing to keep ourselves to ourselves - fearful of others.

Whilst browsing Roget's Thesaurus, I noticed the thematic listing of words was taking on a poetic significance for me. I used the word lists in the order they appeared in the Thesaurus to convey a sense of melancholy amongst the crowds. The book is printed on accounting paper to show financial pressures, the drawings are a mixture of my photographs of buildings and drawings of imaginary future towers unintentionally imprisoning their tenants. The text is rubber stamped. Loss of identity and community are the main issues in this book.

To read the whole book scroll here:

This book was created specifically for the exhibition, Shelter - Unique Visions of a Universal Subject Through Artist's Books

"A traveling exhibition it that calls attention to a universal issue, homelessness..."I've always been interested in the subject of housing and shelter and the problem of homelessness, which is so rife in this country," said Veronica Morgan of Gloucester, the organizer of "Shelter," subtitled "Unique Visions of a Universal Subject through Artist's Books." Morgan...cited statistics from the National Association to End Homelessness, which states that 600,000 families with 1.32 million children are homeless in the United States. Morgan said she wanted to bring the issue of shelter into the public spotlight through the artistic medium of book arts. The exhibit includes 66 works by 50 international artists...All address the themes of home, the psychology of personal space, homelessness, the loss of historic fabric and personal memoir, according to organizers. Thirty percent of proceeds from the sale of works will go to River House Inc., a Beverly homeless shelter."
....................................................................Excerpt taken from, The Salem News - October 02, 2008
April 10 - 22, 2008 -
Wedeman Gallery, Yamawaki Art and Cultural Center, Lasell College, Newton, MA, USA

May 9 - June 19, 2008 - Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD, USA

July 9 - August 15, 2008 - Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA

Oct 6 – 31, 2008 - Montserrat College of Art’s 301 Gallery, 301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA, USA

April 8 - May 3, 2009 - Wells College, Aurora, NY, USA

January - February 2009 - Holy Cross College Art Gallery, Worcester, MA, USA

Babylon Lexicon
New Orleans, 14-30 Nov. 2008
Damp in Ditchwater and Headroom will be on show at the New Orleans Bookfair - Babylon Lexicon.
Future Fantasteek! Issue No.5 will also be exhibited, at the same time, during the New Orleans
Zine Fair.

Place, Identity and Memory – books made by artists
Opens 23 May to 28 June 2009, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland.
Then the exhibition tours libraries and other venues across Dumfries and Galloway, ending at Stranraer Museum, 55 George Street, Stranraer, DG9 7JP, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland between the 26th September – 31st October 2009, to coincide with the annual Literary Festival at nearby Wigtown, Scotland’s Book Town. This is a travelling exhibition by IRIS. The aim of IRIS is to develop Dumfries and Galloway as a recognised centre for book arts in Scotland and internationally.
Headroom and Damp in Ditchwater both feature in the exhibition and catalogue.

Artist's Books: Running a Secret Society No.20

The book measures 18cm x 12cm with a brown & orange manilla cover

Saddle-stitched binding with 12 pages on 130gm cartridge paper and fly-leaf.
Produced in editions of 20, First Edition produced in 2000
The book is altered for each new edition.

I am fascinated by secret societies, especially the bizarre rituals that the members indulge in, in order to be recognised by one of their colleagues but unnoticed by non-members. This book purports to be a manual for running your own secret society. There are sections on ‘secret handshakes’, ‘how to remain unnoticed’ and a loose card ‘courtesy hand-markings recognition chart’ as well as a free ‘computer enhanced match’ to burn the book after it’s been memorised. The introduction explains how it is better to be the only member of your society in order to remain secret in this nonsensical book.

Each book contains a turquoise chart, small envelope with a secret password and ‘match’
to burn the book.

To read the whole thing scroll here:

This book is featured on the V&A website under 'artists' books' alongside an interview with me and five other UK book artists.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/artists-books-interviews/

PRESS and RELEASE, Phoenix Gallery Brighton April - June 2013
As part of the Phoenix Gallery's Press & Release artists' books exhibition, I will be showing everything in the Damp Flat Books catalogue! All 22 artist's book titles, along with 14 issues of my artzine Future Fantasteek! and a selection of sketchbooks. I will also be giving a gallery talk and running a zine workshop.

Message in a Bottle Exhibition : Secrets, Cyphers, Codes & Mysteries, Jan 25th - Feb 15th 2013
Light Grey Art Lab, 118 E 26th Street #101, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Medal Winner - 2nd Seoul International Bookarts Fair 2005
3rd June - 8th June 2005 - COEX Pacific Hall, Korean Publishers Association, 105-2, Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-190, KOREA.
Running a Secret Society No.20 was submitted and awarded a medal in the Book Arts competition. The 2nd Seoul International Book Arts Fair is the only fair of it's kind in Asia, information about the fair will be sent to major TV broadcasting companies(KBS, MBC, SBS etc) newspapers, magazines, galleries, museums, and libraries. There were 200,000 visitors to the fair last year.
Click to see a list of all the winning competition entries

The Peculiar
This book was showcased in The Peculiar, a comic of collected works by artists and designers in the U.K., who explore humour visually, this book featured in the 2002 edition

Pink as a Soft Idea
Running a Secret Society No.20 and Anxious Homes both exhibited in the University of Brighton North Gallery as part of the conference LIAM:3 living in a material world, 2001 where I also presented a paper.

Secrets Exhibition
Group exhibition, The Hague, The Netherlands, March 2000
Click to see the Private View/Advertisement

Exhibited at Making Unmaking conference, University of Portsmouth, August 2000

London Artists' Book Fair
Barbican, London and ICA Galleries London

This book is held in permanent collections at:
Modern British Collections, The British Library, London, U.K.

The V and A Museum, UK

Golda-Meir Library, UWM LIbraries, Milwaukee, USA

James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries, Richmond, USA

Book Arts & Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA, USA

The Culture Archive, UK

Chelsea Library, UK

Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, USA

Center for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK

Eton College Library, UK

St. Peter's House Library, Brighton, UK

Knights Park Library, Kingston University, Kingston-Upon-Thames, UK

Artist's Book: READ

135mm x 190mm, containing 12 pages and printed endpapers.
Saddle-stitched, with red book-cloth bound hard cover with lasercut lime acrylic title: READ.

Bound into the book is a small red acrylic lasercut magnifying glass that slots into a small wage slip envelope bound into the back inside cover.
Title page has a library-style insert, dated, embossed, numbered and signed.

The book also contains a bookmark to be used as a aide memoire.

Brighton, First edition of ten produced in 2012.

This book was created for the exhibition Beyond Dickens. This exhibition of international artists' books was held in Portsmouth in November 2012 as part of the Dickens bicentenary celebrations held in the town (Dicken's birthplace).

READ was inspired by Our Mutual Friend and takes the first 20 pages of this novel but hides within them a Dickens' quote about the act of reading. The quote describes reading as being like a code, whereby the initiated can open the world of books. The quote is hidden word by word on each page in pale turquoise that can only be seen clearly when viewed through the red lense on of the magnifying glass (see images below). The endpapers are images of monochrome violent waters since Our Mutual Friend begins and ends with drownings.